Franco's International Brigade

Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War

Christopher Othen

Description

Foreign volunteers fought on behalf of General Franco and the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War for a right-wing cause whose aim was to smash democracy. These assorted adventurers, fascists, and Catholic crusaders were on the winning side, but their role has remained strangely hidden until now. Men from Portugal and Morocco signed on for money and adventure. General Eoin O'Duffy organised 700 Irishmen in a modern Crusade; 500 Catholic Frenchmen fought in the "Jeanne D'Arc" unit; and thirty British volunteers, including aristocrats and working-class fascists, also took up arms. Romanian Iron Guard extremists died at Majadahonda and an Indian volunteer fought in the fascist militia. There were Russians, Americans, Finns, Belgians, Greeks, Cubans, and many more. Goose-stepping alongside the volunteers were fascist conscripts from Germany and Italy, in training for the next world war. Foreigners, whether unknown individuals like British pilot Cecil Bebb or infamous figures like the German dictator Adolf Hitler, were essential to Franco's victory. Without Bebb--who flew General Francisco Franco from the Canary Islands to Spanish Morocco in 1936, a journey which was to precipitate the onset of the Spanish Civil War--the war would never have started; without Hitler, Franco would never have won.

Franco's International Brigade

Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War

Christopher Othen

Table of Contents

Introduction: European Civil War

PART 1MOLA'S COUP D'ETAT: 17 JULY 1936-31 MARCH 1937

2. Kings and Conspiracies: The Plot to Overthrow Spanish Democracy 3. Storm Over Europe: Britain and the Coup in Morocco 4. We Are Going to Spain to Die: The Recruitment Campaign in North Africa 5. The Comedian Meets the Carpet Chewer: Reaching out to the Third Reich and Fascist Italy 6. Air Power: German and Italian Aeroplanes in Spanish Skies 7. Flowering Rifles: Rupert Bellville in Andalusia 8. The Carlist from Cambridge: Peter Kemp Arrives in Spain 9. We Can't Have Reds in Portugal at the Moment: Dr António De Oliveira Salazar and the Spanish Question 10. The Dream and Lie of Franco: Non-Intervention, the Alcázar of Toledo, and More British Volunteers 11. Welsh Legionnaire: Frank Thomas on the Madrid Front 12. Holy Crusade: King Carol II's Romania and the Legion of the Archangel Michael 13. A Holiday in Spain: General Eoin O'Duffy and the Irish Brigade 14. The Cliffs of Titulcia: The Irish Brigade in the Front Line

PART 2FRANCO'S CIVIL WAR: 1 APRIL 1937-1 APRIL 1939

15. The Devil's Own Frying Pan: The Legion Condor, the Corpo Truppe Volontarie, and Guernica 16. Russia, One and Indivisible: Double Cross in the Paris of Russian Exiles 17. Hedilla at 120 Kilometres an Hour: The Falangist Revolt in Salamanca 18. Viva Francia!: France and the Spanish Civil War 19. Remember the Irishmen in Spain: The Last Days of General O'Duffy's Brigade 20. For the Wrong Reasons: International Fascism, South America, and Spain 21. Bullet in the Head: Rupert Bellville, Peter Kemp, and the Polish Right 22. Yow Hi! Brudder Europeans: Moroccan Atrocities and Republican Racism 23. The Crimes of Captain Courcier: Unrest and Desertion in Jeanne D'Arc 24. Carne de Canon: Peter Kemp, the International Brigades, and the Battle of the Ebro 25. The Horror and the Heartbreak: End of the Spanish Republic 26. Aftermath: The Second World War 1939-45

Franco's International Brigade

Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War

Christopher Othen

Author Information

Christopher Othen studied Linguistics and Literature at university, and Law at postgraduate level. Othen has worked as a journalist, legal representative for asylum seekers and English language teacher.

Franco's International Brigade

Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War

Christopher Othen

Reviews and Awards

"This is a highly readable, engaging work that plugs a major gap in the literature on the Spanish Civil War, approaching the topic from an original angle--that of the foreign volunteers who fought on the side of Franco and the Nationalists. It systematically covers all the volunteers from each foreign country and, in the process, elaborates on the wider historical context, both in the countries in question and in Spain itself. It thereby sets the Nationalist cause in Spain in a wider context of conservative, Catholic and fascist currents in Europe and the world, explaining the importance of the conflict in the thinking and perception of members of such currents."--Dr. Marko Hoare, Kingston University

"An entertaining read which draws on many hitherto unexplored books, newspaper articles and personal sources, Franco's International Brigades offers an intriguing insight into a ragbag of extreme right-wingers, adventurers and misfits."--Michael Alpert, author of A New International History of the Spanish Civil War

"Informed, highly readable and packed with fascinating details, Franco's International Brigades is a key book for understanding the international dimensions of the Spanish Civil War--it wasn't all about romantic young men fighting for the Republic. Recommended both for newcomers to the subject and for those wishing to extend their knowledge of this most fascinating of periods in recent history."-- Jason Webster, author of ¡Guerra!: Living in the Shadows of the Spanish Civil War